Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Peruvian authorities say they are struggling to keep outsiders away from a clan of previously isolated Amazon Indians who began appearing on the banks of a jungle river popular with environmental tourists last year.

The behavior of the small group of Mashco-Piro Indians has puzzled scientists, who say it may be related to the encroachment of loggers and by low-flying aircraft from nearby natural gas and oil exploration in the southeastern region of the country.

Clan members have been blamed for two bow-and-arrow attacks on people near the riverbank in Madre de Dios state where officials say the Indians were first seen last May.

One badly wounded a forest ranger in October. The following month, another fatally pierced the heart of a local Matsiguenka Indian, Nicolas "Shaco" Flores, who had long maintained a relationship with the Mashco-Piro.

Resistance to the brutal Indian state and its imperialist allies continues, in all sections of the country, from the factories of Mumbai, to the forests of Orissa, to the mountainous regions of Kashmir and Jammu, where its peoples are fighting for self determination. This article is from Al Jazeera.

Kashmir Power Cut Protest Turns Deadly

“At least one person killed when Indian troops open fire on protesters angered by electricity outages in winter weather.”

January 3, 2012

Troops in Indian-controlled Kashmir have opened fire on hundreds of villagers who were protesting against frequent power cuts, killing one person and injuring two others, police said.Police said on Monday that the paramilitary troops belonging to India’s Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) began shooting as the protesters shouted slogans outside the main gate of a power plant near Baramulla town in northern Indian-administered Kashmir.

One protester was shot dead and two others were hospitalized with their condition said to be critical.

The killing triggered protests from locals who were demonstrating in front of the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) run Uri power plant situated in the region.

For some reason this study just showed up at my "genetics and genomics" alerts, although it seems quite unrelated. Still it is interesting that for such a low cost (at least for European standards) every Indian citizen could have decent and free healthcare. Worth mentioning:

As high out-of-pocket healthcare expenses pose heavy financial burden on the families, Government of India is considering a variety of financing and delivery options to universalize health care services. Hence, an estimate of the cost of delivering universal health care services is needed.

Methods

We developed a model to estimate recurrent and annual costs for providing health services through a mix of public and private providers in Chandigarh located in northern India. Necessary health services required to deliver good quality care were defined by the Indian Public Health Standards. National Sample Survey data was utilized to estimate disease burden. In addition, morbidity and treatment data was collected from two secondary and two tertiary care hospitals. The unit cost of treatment was estimated from the published literature. For diseases where data on treatment cost was not available, we collected data on standard treatment protocols and cost of care from local health providers.

Results

We estimate that the cost of universal health care delivery through the existing mix of public and private health institutions would be INR 1713 (USD 38, 95%CI USD 18–73) per person per annum in India. This cost would be 24% higher, if branded drugs are used. Extrapolation of these costs to entire country indicates that Indian government needs to spend 3.8% (2.1%–6.8%) of the GDP for universalizing health care services.

Conclusion

The cost of universal health care delivered through a combination of public and private providers is estimated to be INR 1713 per capita per year in India. Important issues such as delivery strategy for ensuring quality, reducing inequities in access, and managing the growth of health care demand need be explored.

First general strike in Belgium in 20 years paralyzed the state yesterday in the day of a major Euro-summit:

Naturally they were protesting those same austerity plans (for the working class, not for the rich nor their political minions) that the EU "leaders" ("leader" now seems to mean "enemy") are promoting in their orgies of rights' demolition.

They claim he was tasered on the back as you can see in the video, because he was being 'aggressive and confrontational'. Judge yourself: he looks like trying to get back to sleep and resisting at most nonviolently:

(AP) — A nuclear reactor at a northern Illinois plant shut down Monday after losing power, and steam was being vented to reduce pressure, according to officials from Exelon Nuclear and federal regulators.

Unit 2 at Byron Generating Station shut down around 10:18 a.m., after losing power from an off-site source, Exelon officials said. Diesel generators began supplying power to the plant equipment and operators began releasing steam from the non-nuclear side of the plant to help cool the reactor, officials said.

Even though the turbine is not turning to produce electricity, "you still need to cool the equipment." said U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokeswoman Viktoria Mitlyng. Releasing steam helps "take away some of that energy still being produced by nuclear reaction but that doesn't have anywhere to go now."

The steam contains low levels of radioactive tritium, but the levels are safe for workers and the public, federal and plant officials said.

That sentence is a cognitive litmus test. Some people's immediate reaction is, "That can't be right," because the United States couldn't do that. Or because crimes on that scale don't still happen. Or because they do happen, but only in horrible places that the United States hasn't rescued.

One million is a "Grandpa, what did you do to stop it?" number. It's a number that undeniably puts the American state among history's villains. Those who are not willing or able to accept this are physically unable to retain the fact that over a million Iraqis are dead. Their brains expel it like a foreign germ.

[...] Operators at Byron Generating Station declared an Unusual Event at 10:18 a.m.CT, due to the loss of offsite power and Unit 2 coming offline.

The nuclear facility’s diesel generators activated as designed to provide power to the facility when there is a loss of offsite power to the facility. The facility remains in a safe condition. Station engineering experts are looking into the cause of the loss of offsite power.

Byron Station is designed to depressurize to reduce steam pressure as part of the many redundant safety systems built into the facility. Steam from the unit is released through safety relief valves that are specifically designed for this purpose.

The steam, which will evaporate quickly, contained expected levels of tritium.

Local residents may see or hear the steam release in progress, which will continue throughout the day until the unit cools down. These types of station releases are regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

There is no health or safety impact to workers or to the public from the release, and Exelon Nuclear has notified allappropriate local, state and federal officials of the Unusual Event. [...]

Monday, January 30, 2012

The reactionary imperialist forces of France and Spain keep working to sink the peace process. A few days ago, the French authorities arrested Navarrese citizen Ernesto Prat at Pau, where he was living normally, in the context of political persecution in the zone occupied by Spain, and is planning to extradite him to Spain, where he can suffer tortures and will be subject to a political process with no guarantees only for his ideology and political activities.

In response several Basque political parties representing an important sector of society called for a protest in Pamplona demanding his legal security, which was forbidden by the new conservative (euphemism for fascist) state delegate (regional governor or viceroy).

They have denounced this attitude with deep concern that it may be a sustained attempt to sabotage the peace process, because what would be expected at this point is a reduction of repression and not an increase of it, almost as telling ETA: we don't want peace, please take up arms again.

Just a quick note to mention that US political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal was moved with other prisoners and is not anymore in isolation. The case is still far from the much necessary retrial but at least some minor victories have been achieved.

A protest in Washington D.C. is being planned for his 58th birthday on April 24th.

We have a dream of a better world. Let us sleep so we have the energy to create it.

Participants of Occupy DC at McPherson Square, both sleeping members and non-sleeping members, will defend the public space we have used as our center for activism on this Monday, January 30th. The National Park Service has given notice that they will be giving citations to – i.e. likely arresting – occupiers at noon for having camping material in an attempt to shut down our movement. Occupy DC will peacefully resist this politically motivated attempt to suppress the free speech of the disenfranchised 99%.

The 1%, led by Darrell Issa, the wealthiest member of Congress, has launched an attack upon the free speech of those of us who disagree with the direction in which our country is going but cannot afford to give unlimited contributions to Super PACs or have lobbyists write legislation for us. In occupying public spaces we act as an ongoing challenge to the K Street lobbyists and elected officials undermining our democracy through the corrosive influence of money in politics.

We give shelter and voice to those who have had none. Attempted foreclosure upon our home will not solve homelessness or improve our health and safety. Nor will it quiet us.

The stated goal for the day was to "move-in" to a large, abandoned, building to turn it into a social and political center. It is a long vacant convention center - the only people ever near there are the homeless who use the space outside the building as a bed. The building occupation also draws attention to the large number of abandoned and unused buildings in Oakland. The day started with a rally and a march to the proposed building. The police knew which building was the target, surrounded it, and used highly mobile units to try and divert the protest. After avoiding police lines, the group made it to one side of the building. Now, this is a very large building, and we were on a road with construction fences on both sides, and a large ditch separating us from the cops. The police fired smoke grenades into the crowd as the group neared a small path around the ditch, towards the building. They declared an unlawful assembly, and this is when the crowd broke down the construction fence. A few people broke fences to escape the situation, others because they were pissed. A couple more fences were taken down then necessary, but no valuable equipment was destroyed. They only things broken were fences.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Insecticidal Bt toxins such as those produced in genetically engineered plants can be detrimental to human cells. This is a result of recent research led by researchers at the University of Caen (France).

Their experiments showed that toxins produced in, for example, the genetically engineered maize MON810, can significantly impact the viability of human cells. The effects were observed with relatively high concentrations of the toxins, nevertheless there is cause for concern.

While the German police and secret services are obviously lenient, at the best, or accomplice, at the worst, with Neonazi terror networks, they have no qualm in keeping under surveillance at least 27 of the 72 representatives of Die Linke (The Left), as was reported by Der Spiegel a few days ago.

According to one of the victims of this police abuse, Gregor Gysi:

The parliamentarians are there to control the domestic intelligence agency. It is shameless that they think they can monitor a third of the parliamentarians in the Left Party faction. Now it has finally become clear that the domestic intelligence agency is nuts.

The German Federal Republic wastes €360,000 each year in this Orwellian persecution, just slightly less of what is dedicated to watch (??) the Neonazi party NPD.

Among those under police surveillance is Petra Pau, president of the Bundestag, who obviously has the trust of more than half the German parliament to seat in such position.

An even most outraging case is the surveillance of Steffen Bockhahn, member of the committee who oversees and approves the budget of the secret services, a circumstance that the legal services of the Bundestag considered that:

... because of the special job description of the committee … only very extraordinary circumstances could justify the surveillance of a member.

Some 300 people were arrested yesterday in Oakland, California (USA), within a context of large protests intended to occupy a large building as social center (a revolutionary practice common in Europe but less so in the USA, where most squatting is private as far as I know).

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Yesterday Jan 27 was the International Holocaust Memorial Day. Sadly enough, the highlight of the day was the international ball organized by the fascist Austrian fraternity WKR, with participation of important Neonazis from France (Le Pen), Sweden (Ekerot) and Flanders (Claeys).

As reaction, antifascist organizations called for a protest, which was carefully controlled by police. Meanwhile the Neonazis enjoyed their offensive ball.

Friday, January 27, 2012

With due caution because the main source is the Japanese government (whose credibility is below zero and may have reasons to let the shit hit the fan in order to dilute their own nuclear responsibility) I must mention that Tokyo (and Seoul?) accuse China of having suffered a radioactive accident at the experimental fast reactor (CEFR), located near Beijing.

He is now before the tribunal that will judge his crimes. The evidence is so massive that the defense chose to remain silent.

More than 100 massacres, 1771 individual murders, 1485 underage women raped, some 30,000 citizens forcibly displaced, many of them indigenous Mayas, forced labor, forced conscription into "self-defense" militias, imprisonment of people in the "model hamlets" (concentration camps), creation of special all powerful sky-mask tribunals, which were instrumental in the execution of many people loosely accused of belonging to the resistance.

All these are among the accusations against this fascist terrorist of the oligarchs with a presidential pretext.

The formal accusation is of crimes against Humankind, as well as the ultimate ideological, political and military responsibility for the genocide in Guatemala.

Judge Carol Patricia Flores, after hearing the parties, ruled economic caution and home prison, opening the path for a full trial.

For years, the former dictator remained immune as member of parliament from 1990 to 2004. He also tried to run twice for President of the Republic but was prohibited on constitutional grounds (no coupists can run).

The government attacks to the free soup kicthens

The government just issued a decree which in the name of public health, attacks to the regular soup kitchens organised by political groups that cook and offer food to the increasing mumber of homeless (reaching 20,000 in Athens only). Homelss people though are not the only ones depending on these soup kicthens, but plenty more neo-poor who cannot afford to buy food depend on them. The Secretary of Public Health named Dimopoulos issued a decree stating that only formal agencies can offer food for free in public these are the church, the municipalities and NGOs any other such effort has to be approved by the authorities.

It is with great concern we bring news of more deaths in Bahrain. The total of deaths in January has now reached 9, making it the highest number in one month since March 2011. The situation in Bahrain is rapidly deteriorating as we reach the one year anniversary of the beginning of the protests on February 14th, 2011.

1 - Saeed Ali Al-Sukari (65) , from Aali, death announced early morning on the 25th Jan, family says it's due to excessive tear gas that was thrown in the area the night before.

2- Abbas Jaffar AlShaikh (26) from Daih, death announced at Salmanyia hospital due to cancer. Abbas is a protester who was injured many times since Feb 14, 2011, including injuries caused by birdshots. Speculations are that because he was increasingly subjected to teargas, that may have sped up the cancer. BHRS has stated that Abbas Jaffar Al.Shaikh after being shot in his back with sound bomb from a close distance caused him blood clotting. He was admitted to hospital on 27 Dec 2011. Some background about him

For the first two cases, because of the difficulty of verifying the cause of death, the BCHR demands an independent forensic examination of the deceased.

3- Muntadher Saeed Fakhar (37), from Sanabis, (Photo) died under torture in Hoora police station within 24 hours from time of arrest. A witness has told BCHR that the police hit the car of Muntadhar, after which they beat him in the street near Jidhafs graveyard at around 1am , Jan 25 then arrested him. They also confiscated his car. BCHR has confirmed the marks of beating on the body of the victim before his burial -

This Photo shows what looks like marks of a shoe on the head of the victim

4- Mohamed Ebrahim Yaqoob (18) from Sitra, (Photo) , was a victim of run over attempt by police in the afternoon- video then was arrested, few hours later the ministry of interior announced his death over twitter without giving details of cause of death. His Uncle has told BCHR that a police officer told them Mohamed had sickle cell, when the uncle replied that they have a video which proves the run over attempt the officer threatened him with accusation of illegal gathering. Lawyer Zahra Masood said on Thursday that the public prosecution refused to assign an independent forensic doctor to examine the body of the deceased. They also refused to allow the lawyer to examine the body.

At a late hour of Thursday Ministry of interior claimed that "Yacoub referred to SMC for sickle cell complications. Medical report indicates natural death. Body free of injuries". Opposition society Alwefaq released photos of the body today before burial showing bruises and cuts on the body.

Mattar Ebrahim, a member of the opposition Al-Wefaq party, said police notified the 18-year-old's family at 1am on Thursday of the boy's death.

"Many people saw him (Yaaqoub) after his accident, and he was able to move. He was injured, but [it was] not a severe injury," he told Al-Akhbar.

"Later he was tortured in front of the police station. Many people saw him [get tortured], and we met with some witnesses who confirmed that he was tortured outside the police station," Ebrahim said. english.al-akhbar.com/content/bahr..

Two Aragonese citizens, one of them a minor, suffered a fascist aggression this weekend near Moncasi street. The two youngsters were attacked without any exchange or provocation by a large group of Nazi skinheads. The boy suffered the breaking of an arm bone, several bruises a purple eye and damage in the ear as an earring he wore was brutally pulled out. The girl got two broken teeth, a broken jaw and bruises on all her body.

Apparently when the girl lost consciousness because of the beating, some of the aggressors even jumped on her body.

The Nazi gang even showed up at the hospital to issue further threats to the victims and had to be expelled by private security.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

The infamous Japanese company TEPCO is clearly guilty of the worst nuclear disaster mismanagement of all times, and is clearly guilty of the destruction of the health and lives of millions of Japanese (and to lesser extent North Americans and other peoples), all with the complicity of the Japanese authorities (both main parties and most individual politicians included).

In a normal world, soon after the catastrophe, TEPCO would have been intervened by the Japanese state and put under state management, logically. Not anymore: we live now in a very strange deformed world in which private actors command governments and not the other way around, where ministers are there to shield off the public inquiries and not to enforce law and order to the companies that are failing to fulfill their social role.

Never mind protecting the people against radiation: all them have only lied once and again, promoted a culture of criminal idiocy and suicidal ignorance.

But after all that not just the managers of TEPCO are not in jail and the company has not been nationalized. Nope: they are being given a public grant of (by the moment) 1 trillion yen to pretend that they are solving a massive nuclear problem that they cannot solve.

The process to take out the melted nuclear fuel is supposed to take additional 10~15 years. More trillions of yen will be needed to abandon the nuclear reactors.

However, the technology of removing the melted nuclear fuel has not been developed.

The worst of all is that they may get away with this murderous scam phase II. And each time one such murderous abuse happens and gets unpunished, the chance of another one happening soon increase a lot. For example I doubt that the Fukushima scandal would be happening if 2/3 of the same would not have happened the year before in the Gulf of Mexico, and this one maybe would not have been possible without Bhopal, etc.

Each corporate crime unpunished implies new such crimes to happen soon, maybe in your neighborhood.

And the scale of such atrocities also increase. One of these days they will blow up the planet right away. It's difficult to think something worse than Fukushima but, as long as they remain at large, the disasters will keep happening and the mismanagements will be growingly more corrupt and abusive.

Public anger and distrust of institutions also grows however. But I personally would prefer that such brutal long-term environmental poisonings would not happen: if we have to suffer, so be it, but the children and the still unborn should not pay for our complacency.

The stupid* EU boycott against Iran is backfiring: while EU was supposed to start boycotting Iranian oil in six months, Iran has sped up the process and is boycotting EU beginning now. Some Mediterranean countries, notably the already troubled Greece (35%) and Italy (13%), are highly dependent on Iranian oil. Italy also saw the recent loss of its agreements with Libya for oil imports.

So far the mutual boycott only refers to oil but in fact Iran interests Europe mostly for other reasons:

Iranian exports 2006

Much of the foreign investment in Iran is European; European car-makers Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Renault, Peugeot, Citroën and Fiat all have invested in Iran quite intensely; in the electronic sector Siemens and Alcatel both have contracts with Iranian companies.

It is interesting that Merkozy and their mouthpiece Ashton have not extended the boycott to all economical exchanges (see the directive), when these could mean in fact hurting the French and German capitalists. I wonder if Iran will nationalize European car-makers in the country, because that would be funny to watch.

_______________
*I say stupid because it is not comprehensive any approach to West Asian affairs must begin by boycotting Israel, the only rogue state in the area with nuclear weapons and an aggressive racist genocidal bunch on top of all that. And must continue with a policy of demolition of the theocracies of the Arab Peninsula. Then and only then we can consider Iran as next in line.

As happened to their distant cousins, the Maasai, decades ago in Tanzania, the Samburu of Kenya are now being evicted from their ancestral lands (violently, illegally and without any compensation scheme) in order to make room for yet another wildlife park.

Kenya’s Laikipia district has been part of the traditional territory of the Samburu tribe for centuries until two US-based charities – The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) – agreed to pay $2 million for their land, which was officially owned by former Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi.

Soon after, the Kenyan police began a series of brutal evictions of the tribe, burning their villages, killing and stealing their animals and assaulting men, women and children. Survival has recently received reports of an elder being shot ‘in cold blood’.

Following waves of violence from the police, the Samburu began legal proceedings against AWF and ex-President Moi, to plead for their rights to the land. A subsequent court demand for no further harassment of the Samburu has been ignored. Survival has recently received reports that women and children have been sleeping in the bush, despite heavy rains, terrified of police violence.

The genocidal attitude of the Kenyan government may well backfire and the German travel industry, one of the largest in the World, has warned that the scandal may damage the reputation of Kenya and actually make them lose visitors.

On Friday, January 27th, the tent occupation in front of METI in Tokyo faces eviction by order of minister Yukio Edano. The eviction order follows a controversial public meeting where government officials met with nuclear industry personnel to discuss nuclear power plant restarts, while attempting to exclude the public from the meeting. Concerned citizens who registered to attend the meeting were forcefully removed and the meeting took place behind closed doors.

The tent occupation in front of METI has lasted over 4 months through the support of women from Fukushima, and many others around Japan who oppose nuclear power. People from all over the world have visited the occupation to show their support and learn about issues surrounding nuclear power post March 11th, including the severe conditions that people in Fukushima continue to face. Currently, women of Fukushima are in the process of a "10 month 10 day" 24-hour sit-in to protest against nuclear power and the government's mismanagement of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster that continues today.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Finally a light at the end of the tunnel, even if most tenuous: the National Assembly of the French Republic adopted yesterday a law that encourages the return of Basque prisoner to the Basque Country or nearby prisons.

The proposal, promoted by Conservative French-Nationalist (UMP) deputy Sauveur Gandolfi-Scheit (elected by Corsica), was approved by near unanimity, with only the Left Front abstaining (presumably because they consider it short).

In the debate, the Mayor of Baiona (Bayonne) Jean Grenet (UMP) defended the law because it may help the "ongoing transition". He also argued that France should stop using the Euro-order fast extradition procedures specially against those victim of political persecution like Aurore Martin, whose attempt of arrest months ago was stopped by popular resistance in what Grenet described as not really glorious circumstances.

AT 4:45 a.m. on the morning of August 2, 2009, the family of Miraym Al-Ghawi was awakened by pounding on the door of their home in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem. A small bomb was detonated, throwing open the door. Through it walked masked and armed Israeli commandoes, who dragged the Al-Ghawis, including the six Al-Ghawi children, into the night.

They collected the family's belongings in trucks and dumped them outside the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, where they were ransacked. The Al-Ghawi's youngest child, age 4, stood and watched as commandoes set fire to her bed and her playthings. The daughter still cannot sleep without her mother. Medical experts have diagnosed her ailment as "settler trauma."

A US marine accused over the killing of 24 Iraqi civilians in the city of Haditha was demoted to the rank of private but will serve no time behind bars, a military spokesman has said.

Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, the last squad member to face justice after all the others were cleared, was sentenced to 90 days confinement but he will not serve it for procedural reasons, the spokesman said.

The sentencing hearing was held on Tuesday at Camp Pendleton, south of Los Angeles.

Word of the maximum sentence sparked outrage in Iraq, where Ali Badr, a Haditha resident and relative of one of the victims, called it "an insult to all Iraqis" and "solid proof that the Americans don't respect human rights".

Basque newspaper Gara has today a chilling report[es]on how the connection of the secret services with the National-Socialist Underground (NSU) terrorist organization is being officially shrank to a mere 'cell' and the not completely erased trail that brings to the German secret services and probably to the NATO-sponsored Gladio terror network, being hidden under the rug with the help of the complacent mass media.

Those who dare to question the official versions on the violent self-dissolution of the group known as National-Socialist Underground (NSU) risk being stigmatized as "conspiracy theorists". Particularly the center-right daily Süddeustche Zeitung (SD), led by its "expert" in secret services' affairs, Hans Leyedecker, rises as an institution which pretends to know how legitimate is to question the official version and when should the self-censorship begin.

Most important is the presence of a third person in the mysterious immolation of the Nazi cell. Several witnesses have reported seeing the man both near the bank that they allegedly robbed and near the burnt car.

This hot trail is vehemently rejected as "conspiration theory" by the "expert" Leyedecker, who in turn defends a sudden burst of suicidal tendencies of NSU member Uwe Böhnhardt, who murdered his comrade and then killed himself by the painful method of setting all on fire with himself inside.

Any aficionado to Hollywood action movies would recognize in these fires an obvious attempt by a liquidator (the third man probably) to destroy evidences.

It is also interesting that the US military secret services (DIA) already knew in 2007 that the murder of a policewoman was work of the Nazis (mentioned by Stern magazine). Meanwhile the German police was blind and deaf... until 2011, when they suddenly discover (ha!) all this mess only after the Zwickau incident.

According to this DIA report, the North American spies watched with German colleagues to some people allegedly linked to "Islamic terrorism" when they witnessed the incident. They had to quit their investigation because too many layers of the German secret state were involved.

The connections of the Federal Republic of Germany with the Nazi past and present are many. The German secret services (BND) were created out of the Eastern branch of the Nazi secret services for example. Many many former Nazis were recycled into respectable citizens and officers.

This fascist paramilitary underground is not privative of Germany but widespread through Europe, and was partly unveiled in the 1980s as Gladio network. However much of it remains hidden and effectively forbidden from research, so tightly it is linked to the imperial NATO quasi-state.

Jeff Halper, secretary of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, sent this message out to friends last night:

"Its 11 at night here on a cold, rainy night in Palestine. I just got a phone call from Salim Shawamreh, a Palestinian comrade, that Israeli army bulldozers have arrived at his home and have begun demolishing it and the home of his neighbor as well. Salim's home, which has been demolished already four times because the Israeli authorities refuse to grant Palestinian building permits, is one of 26,000 homes that Israel has demolished in the Occupied Territories since 1967. I'm rushing out there, but it will probably be destroyed before I get there. There isn't much to do -- you feel so powerless in these circumstances -- but at least you now know. I'll stay in touch with you. The American-European supported Occupation goes on..... "

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Almost two years have passed but the consequences of such a brutal mismanagement of the ecological catastrophe of the Deepwater Horizon, with all the blessings of the corrupt government at Washington, keep haunting the children of the area. That other even worse catastrophes like Fukushima have taken primacy and that the media has forgotten about the BP spill (never talked much about it anyhow) does not mean that the problem is solved: just brushed under the rug.

Under house arrest in England, the WikiLeaks founder opens up about his battle with the 'Times,' his stint in solitary and the future of journalism

(...) Assange recently spoke to someone he calls a Western "intelligence source," and he asked the official about his fate. Will he ever be a free man again, allowed to return to his native Australia, to come and go as he pleases? "He told me I was fucked," Assange says.

"Are you fucked?" I ask.

Assange pauses and looks out the window. The house is surrounded by rolling fields and quiet woods, but they offer him little in the way of escape. The British Supreme Court will hear his extradition appeal on February 1st – but even if he wins, he will likely still remain a wanted man. Interpol has issued a so-called "red notice" for his arrest on behalf of Swedish authorities for questioning in "connection with a number of sexual offenses" – Qaddafi, accused of war crimes, earned only an "orange notice" – and the U.S. government has branded him a "high-tech terrorist," unleashing a massive and unprecedented investigation designed to depict Assange's journalism as a form of international espionage. (...)

(...)

They're trying to interpret the Espionage Act to say that any two-way communication with a source is a collaboration with a source, and is therefore a conspiracy to commit espionage where classified information is involved. The Pentagon, in fact, issued a public demand to us that we not only destroy everything we had ever published or were ever going to publish in relation to the U.S. government, but that we also stop "soliciting" information from U.S. government employees. The Espionage Act itself does not mention solicitation, but they're trying to create a new legal precedent that includes a journalist simply asking a source to communicate information.

(...)

The creation of WikiLeaks was, in part, a response to Iraq. There were a number of whistle-blowers who came out in relation to Iraq, and it was clear to me that what the world was missing in the days of Iraq propaganda was a way for inside sources who knew what was really going on to communicate that information to the public. Quite a few who did ended up in very dire circumstances, including David Kelly, the British scientist who either committed suicide or was murdered over his revelations about weapons of mass destruction. The Iraq War was the biggest issue for people of my generation in the West. It was also the clearest case, in my living memory, of media manipulation and the creation of a war through ignorance.

I must say that the international bullying of Haiti, led by USA and France but with important participation of other powers, notably Brazil, has no name! That it descends to this is only "natural" byproduct of the depravity that the invasion of Haiti implied to begin with.

Monday, January 23, 2012

In yet another betrayal of the PT, the Brazilian authorities stormed with riot police a settlement of the MST (Movement of the Landless, a major Working Class organization) that had existed for eight years, demanding homes and land, near Sao Paulo.

The settlement had become a full fledged neighborhood but is now ashes thanks to the traitors to the Working Class.

The pathetic nature of the leadership of the European Union (or rather lack of any such leadership) becomes obvious in these cases. Why does the EU need to adopt any sanctions against Iran?

I am no fan of the fascist regime of the ayatollahs but it's just one among many. The only reason that is really pushing EU political leadership to adopt sanctions against Iran is that Israel, the USA and the Zionist International demand it.

Exactly the same reasons it has to allow Zionist teams to take part in European music or sports competitions or even to recognize Israel altogether.

We cannot forget that as of today, Israel is the only West Asian state (and what a racist and dangerously rogue state!) with nuclear weapons, weapons that pose a direct threat to Europe.

As mentioned yesterday, police intervened to defend the Nazi scum, however what was not obvious then is that the Nazis used gas grenades and the fact that there was not a single organized clash group in the Indignad@s' demo, to get away unharmed even if they were barely a dozen and half.

More details at Contra Info, including photo gallery of some of these Nazis' faces.

We would like to inform you that on February 8th, 2012, there will be a renewed trial against four members of the Serbian Anarcho-Syndicalist Initiative (ASI), as well as two unaffiliated Belgrade anarchists, as part of the fabricated legal case of the Belgrade Six (BG6).

The six Belgrade libertarians* have been accused of inciting, assisting in and executing an attack on the Greek Embassy in Belgrade at the end of August 2009, in solidarity with a hunger-striking Greek political prisoner at the time (Thodoros Iliopoulos). Soon after the attack on the embassy, BG6 (Tadej Kurepa, Ratibor Trivunac, Ivan Savic, Ivan Vulovic, Nikola Mitrovic and Sanja Dojkic) were arrested and held in custody for the next six months charged with ‘international terrorism’.

Thanks to a mass mobilization of support, both globally and locally, they were released early before their trial date. In June 2010, they were finally fully acquitted at a High Court in Belgrade, which decided that there is no basis for a guilty verdict on any of the charges.

The prosecution filed a complaint, but the Court of Appeals failed to respond until a moment when suitable political reasons emerged. Only days after antimilitarist protests against the NATO summit that took place in Belgrade in June 2011, at which Ratibor Trivunac was arrested, the Court of Appeals granted the prosecution’s complaint and ruled on a renewed case against BG6.

Currently, there are criminal proceedings against seven members of the Belgrade local group of ASI and they are all politically motivated.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Gang-style police raid migrants’ houses, robs them from valuables and cash – statement by the “movement united against racism and the fascist threat”

The “movement united against racism and the fascist threat” has issued the following statement in response to the near-inconceivable events taking place in the neighbourhoods around the axis of Acharnon Street in central Athens (including the neighbourhoods of Agios Panteleimonas, Attikis Sq, Victoria and Amerikis Sq) over the course of the past few months.

A gang of police and ‘local residents’ has been profiting on a regular basis within the past few months in the wider area around Acharnon Str, storming into houses and looting whatever they can get their hands on. The same gang, in fact, appeared three times immediately prior to cleaning-up operations by the national and the municipal police, demanding money from the street traders in order to avoid the coming police attack against them.

Two examples of the gang’s operations:

- On Wednesday, January 11th, they stormed into a house by breaking down its door. Five policemen took part in this operation. Once in the house, they started smashing cupboards while the tenants told them ‘we have the keys for you to open them up’. They found boxes of cigarettes and 600 euros — they took it all without filling in any confiscation form. They also took credit cards with their pin numbers and immediately after that they withdrew 700 euros from an ATM. They injured an individual in their eye with a fist blow. This was the third time they demanded money from them in the past month alone.

- On November 9th, the same group entered another house and demanded they were handed over 1500 euros. One of the migrant tenants, alarmed, started collecting money from all those present and reached the sum of 1145 euros. Then, they took him downstairs, handcuffed, put him into a car and started driving him around to allow time for the others to collect the remainder of the sum they had demanded! While en route, the policemen where particularly talkative and showed him spots where they collect money from selling heroin, hashish, etc.

The name of one of the policemen as well as the number plates of their cars are known to our group.

I am convinced that this denouncing statement will fall in deaf ears, judging from the immunity that these criminal racist gangs of the area seem to enjoy, with everyday pogroms that begin at around 6.30 pm in Attikis Square and commence five hours later with baseball bat blows and the robbing of personal items of migrants on the doorstep of the church in Agios Pantaleimonas. The identification of extremely well-known people participating in these criminal acts daily has yet to take place [by the police].

You might issue all the fines you want, but you cannot silently legalise so obvious cases of illegal police activity. If these people are not police, then who is it covering up for them, and accompanying them in such a systematic and uncontrollable activity?

On behalf of the ‘movement united against racism and the fascist threat’,
Petros Konstantinou, member of the municipal council of Athens, tel. 6932828964

The same site reports of a general strike in Sicily brining the island to a total halt. Video:

Meanwhile in Lisbon, Portugal, indignados (outraged), who were marching in big numbers, clashed with fascists who were defended by police, as reports Sare Antifaxista[es] (there is a video but I don't seem able to embed it, sorry).

In Compostela (aka Santiago), Galicia, four people were arrested after the demonstration against the recently deceased fascist leader Manuel Fraga. There does not seem to have been reason for those arrests other than police wanted to arrest someone. Source: Galiza Livre[gal].

How is that rational? Who is hysterical and panicking? Who is in denial? Who is unfit to govern? Who should go to jail for crimes against Humanity? Who makes the captain of the shipwrecked Italian cruise appear as a cold rational and responsible leader by comparison?

The Japan Times reports today that the report, issued in March, soon after the catastrophe, that stated that Fukushima nuclear disaster was (and is) a worst case scenario was buried and ignored and dismissed as a personal note by the Japanese authorities, who preferred to look in another direction, pretend they were idiots and suggest to the victims of the disaster to smile and not think in radiation.

"The content was so shocking that we decided to treat it as if it didn't exist," a senior government official said.

Very rational! The same people who claimed that panic would be worse: hypocrites, criminals!

Kondo drew up the document at Kan's request and is dated March 25, 2011. The document forecast that in a worst-case scenario the plant's crippled reactors would intermittently release massive quantities of radioactive materials for about a year.

The projection was based on a scenario in which a hydrogen explosion would tear through the No. 1 reactor's containment vessel, forcing all workers at the plant to evacuate because of the ensuing lethal radiation levels.

The document said that in such an event, residents within a radius of 170 km of the power station, and possibly even further away, would be forced to evacuate. Those living within a radius of between 170 km and 250 km of the plant, including Tokyo, could chose to evacuate voluntarily. The wrecked power station is about 220 km northeast of the capital.

People are dying and falling ill by millions for ignoring this document. When will we see Kan and his ministers in jail?

Fukushima Diary reports today that squids in Peru have been detected with beta rays (internal contamination), presumably from Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, which is leaking radiation and radioactive materials to atmosphere and ocean continuously (never mind distributing them within Japanese products, which are exported uncontrolled for radiation).

While I'm not aware that Peruvian squids specifically are exported a lot (although it is probable), Argentinean ones are and it's not that far away.

The owner and publisher of the Atlanta Jewish Times, Andrew Adler, has suggested that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu consider ordering a Mossad hit team to assassinate U.S. President Barack Obama so that his successor will defend Israel against Iran.

Adler, who has since apologized for his article, listed three options for Israel to counter Iran’s nuclear weapons in an article published in his newspaper last Friday. The first is to launch a pre-emptive strike against Hamas and Hezbollah, the second is to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities and the third is to “give the go-ahead for U.S.-based Mossad agents to take out a president deemed unfriendly to Israel in order for the current vice president to take his place and forcefully dictate that the United States’ policy includes its helping the Jewish state obliterate its enemies.”

Ironically enough others consider Obama to be the most pro-Zionist US President ever. But it seems that nothing is enough for some fanatics.

Whatever the case, Adler should be incommunicado in Guantanamo by now but I have yet to have confirmation of even open procedure against this Adler traitor and terrorist.

Sadism in the Cell: Thanks to a Vindictive Prison System, Abu-Jamal is Still in 'The Hole'

Linn Washington Jr.

January 20, 2012

Those intent on tormenting now ex-death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal have done it again, this time perhaps even exceeding their past efforts to painfully harass this man widely perceived as a political prisoner.

The draconian constraints of AC placement surpass the harsh restrictions of the death row isolation Abu-Jamal has endured for over a quarter century.

A jury sentenced Abu-Jamal to death following a controversial July 1982 conviction for killing a Philadelphia policeman.

No surprise that this latest punitive assault against Abu-Jamal has his worldwide support movement in an uproar. Supporters see AC placement as retaliation by those incensed that Abu-Jamal is no longer facing execution.